And I suddenly realized today that I'm basically my old high school choir instructor.

These kids turned me into a choir teacher. ****** hell.

This is what I'm afraid of... All of my closest friends will tell you they've never seen me angry. Just this year alone would make you think that's not the case. I'm sorry your classes are so rough

Kids are great at getting under people's skin, lol. It's only normal for teachers to feel the frustration when they're having to deal with hundreds of them on a regular basis.

And this is why we need vacations. The burnout is real.

In my own case it's not really the kids I'm frustrated with but how other teachers are dealing with student misbehavior, and just the overall attitude that many of them have about what they feel they're not responsible for. There's not much of a unified front here, everyone is on his or her own, and the kids know that and take full advantage.

I've culled the rebellion in my own classes because I've been very aggressive about it, but the result has been a lot of pouting. So like half the class is engaged while the other half is still busy sulking over the fact that I make them do their work and am not intimidated by any of their tantrums. And I don't expect this to improve, not when the students are still free to repeat their behavior in other classes. They'll just bide their time and attempt to test me again later, especially now that the end of the school year is approaching.

How have you been dealing?

Second:I'm lucky enough that at my school, my coworkers and I are all on the same page as far as discipline and expectations for respectful behaviour in the classroom go. So, there's a lot of good cop, bad cop, but we do alternate so the students a) don't get used to it and b) don't build up a strong hatred of one or the other.

But the thing that burns me out is just how completely people don't care about learning. Like. At all. Anything. Like, some students - despite being developmentally typical - just actively refuse to learn, like we talked about in the other thread. It's Sisyphean (wow look I'm fancy big words). But it's impossible not to get disheartened when you see that you're doing this thing, and even though you're getting paid for it, it's really just kind of... not contributing anything. To anyone.

Getting angry isn't helpful, though. Back in the day, in my first year or two of teaching, I remember occasionally getting really heated and angry at a few students / classes. But these days, it's just not worth the effort. I just mentally throw my hands up and phone it in super hard when that happens.

Let's remember what it's like to be 12-17. Only thing you or I cared about was hanging out with our friends. School sucked, teachers sucked. Your hormones were all OVER THE PLACE! You had the attention span of a Golden Retriever. So you can't give the kids too much sh*t, ya know?

I have plenty of students that actually pay attention in my classes. Those are the ones I focus on. If the others want to pick at their notebooks or sleep, let em'. They're only hurting themselves. I refuse to take it personally only because they're 12 - 17 yr old.

One of the few times I need to use the toilet at work to take a dump and both toilets on the first floor are absolutely blown out. Bowl is filled to the brim with brown shit water and turds. Both toilets. Run upstairs.....both toilets blown out. One has overflowed. It must have been the same person going around each toilet after he blocked the other ones up. How is this possible? Tempted to use the ladies facilities.

Harry Potter=Halloween. The older you are, the less you should care about it until at some point you need to gracefully hand it over to the next generation to enjoy and help facilitate their fun.

Wrong!

Adult Hallowe'en parties can be absolute blasts if they are planned and executed PROPERLY... My mates and I (right up and into our 40's) used to throw legendary Hallowe'en parties back in my city in Canada - even made the local media. And, our events were private - held in our old house which was an old late Victorian style place with 3 floors, so there was lots of room.

Proper attention to detail, ticketing (we charged a flat $20 per head which covered everything...), costumes required, a serious mix/assortment of people, prizes for best/weirdest costumes, great music, food (ours were catered by a local restaurant), kegs of local craft beer (15), security, and enough toilets, all contributed to a fantastic soiree. These parties cost around $4000 to put on, so the entry fee helped us break even; any extra was used to take the people who came over the next day to help us clean up out for a big dinner.

We held these parties every year for 13 years, and attendance was always around 150-200 people each time; the record attendance was our 6th bash which had 230 people show up to our house. Never had ANY hassles with the cops, or agro of any kind among the guests - everyone was too busy having a tremendous time.

So spare me the 'Hallowe'en is only a children's thing' bullshit... Perhaps you've never been to a real adult Hallowe'en party...? If that's the case, maybe you should give it a go. If you have been to one, and it wasn't great, maybe you just went to/go to lame parties...!

But it's impossible not to get disheartened when you see that you're doing this thing, and even though you're getting paid for it, it's really just kind of... not contributing anything. To anyone.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Don't feel bad

Your typical Korean office worker will be spending 80% of their time:

- Writing up reports that get filled away and are never looked at again.- Making and beautifying overblown, hour long presentations for the the boss whenever he/she asks an arbitrary questions.- Going to hweshiks- Attempting to look as busy as possible- Warming chairs while sitting in pointless meetings

There will be at least one, or a group of kids, in your class who learn something new from each of your lessons, whether you're teaching passively or actively. As long as you're doing your best with what you have, you've no reason to feel disheartened or ashamed.

I too have turned into the teacher I swore I would never be. Thankfully my days are short, and it's almost time to go home but teaching in Korea has convinced me that I never want to teach again.

I am done, too. I feel the same way. Well, teaching kids. Do you ever look back and think, "how did I do this for so long?"because I do

I've gotten to the point as well where I tell myself and others "I would stay in Korea if I didn't have to teach." There are some annoying things about living here, but it's harder to turn a blind eye when you're in school.

Titus Groan: So spare me the 'Hallowe'en is only a children's thing' bullshit... Perhaps you've never been to a real adult Hallowe'en party...? If that's the case, maybe you should give it a go. If you have been to one, and it wasn't great, maybe you just went to/go to lame parties...!

That' right, man. Adult parties that REQUIRE guests to dress in a costume aren't lame! It's all subjective. As an adult I have no interest in wearing a costume and find the people that really get into it annoying. That's just how I feel. If I get invited to an event that insists that I wear a costume because same lameo thinks it's "Fun and wacky!" you can be assured I can't be bothered. All the power to you if you're into that.

Following my post about consulting in the "Friday Ramblings" thread, the ones who did my consulting told me several interesting bits of info. One of which was that putting one's hands in their pockets is considered a sign of disinterest or disrespect (I've only been doing this since I've been wearing a hoodie these past two weeks). I appreciate the advice to not do that, but at the same time my CTs have been aware of this and several other things that they talked about for WEEKS now, and at no point do they think it's a good idea to tell me?

"Oh, but JVPrice, what about...?"

No. My CTs were nodding in silent agreement as I was given this information. I wouldn't even be angry with a lot of these criticisms if they weren't things my CTs could've told me.

No. My CTs were nodding in silent agreement as I given this information. I wouldn't even be angry with a lot of these criticisms if they weren't things my CTs could've told me.

A lot of people have a hard time being direct with their coworkers about stuff like this, so they'll wait for someone with authority to say something, or just agree with the collective should the subject come up.

I will say, though, that sometimes people will just agree with the collective because of conformity and not because they actually agree with it.

With that being said, apparently crossing your legs while sitting with others (one leg over the other, not when you're on the floor) is considered rude, too. I only learned about that this year because no one ever said anything to me about it. I just happened to be around when a CT scolded a student for crossing her legs, and I was all like, "What, that's not allowed?"

No. My CTs were nodding in silent agreement as I given this information. I wouldn't even be angry with a lot of these criticisms if they weren't things my CTs could've told me.

A lot of people have a hard time being direct with their coworkers about stuff like this, so they'll wait for someone with authority to say something, or just agree with the collective should the subject come up.

I will say, though, that sometimes people will just agree with the collective because of conformity and not because they actually agree with it.

With that being said, apparently crossing your legs while sitting with others (one leg over the other, not when you're on the floor) is considered rude, too. I only learned about that this year because no one ever said anything to me about it. I just happened to be around when a CT scolded a student for crossing her legs, and I was all like, "What, that's not allowed?"

Yeah. But for reals, a lot of these little faux pas are only a problem if someone decides to make them a problem.

Example: I once had a deeply unpleasant manager (who I mentioned in the other thread about waygook.org user JVPrice's consulting experience) who REALLY wanted to get me fired / not renewed.

So, during a big 'consulting'ish meeting, the following complaints were brought up:- that I didn't go into neighbouring classrooms to chat with teachers [who I didn't know] in between classes- that I worn jeans - that I put my hands in my pockets- that I didn't smile enough outside of class- that I brought a water bottle to class - that I didn't greet the VP every morning in her office- that I didn't speak Korean well enough

And all of these things are things I had been doing / have continued to do before and since then. And they're literally not things that should be made an issue of. Nobody - sincerely nobody- has ever complained about or mentioned any of those things to me, ever. Except for that one person, who wanted to cause a stink.

Contrary to what some people on this website might have people believe, the vast majority of Koreans are not hyper-dogmatic 'this is wrong / this is right' people who nitpick every little thing. BUT! Those kind of people do exist. And they can make your working life absolutely miserable.

I'm not one to b*tch much. It usually take A LOT to annoy me, but...…………….. Why is it that the traveling Violin Teacher HAS to use my classroom when the auditorium is empty? The kids literally drag their music stands into my room from the storage closet in the auditorium. The EMPTY auditorium. Did I mention that it's EMPTY?! She's also the type when she talks, she yells. She also constantly clears her throat. And it's not what you think... it's the ajishi style hack 'cuuuuuuuuuuk!